I Think That I Shall Never See A Petition Lovely As A Tree

With regards to the planned "deforestation" in front of Avery Hall on the WSU campus, I could really care less. WSU is not the center of our universe and there is a lot more that goes on in this community than the undergraduate penchant for revolutionary drama encouraged by their mentors in the ivy-covered halls of academe.

On the one hand, those are trees that were planted by the university, not some old-growth cedar grove, and the university can do with them as they please. On the other hand, there is a certain delicious hoist and petard element to this whole situation. As long as the professors professional activists are busy biting the hand that feeds them and are not agitating and meddling in the city of Pullman's business, I'm happy.

But the online petition started to save the trees has provided for some rather amusing comments:

46. Don't Destroy Our Campus!!!!
I love the big old trees on campus. The forest-y look is what attracted me to WSU in the first place. The trees make campus beautiful and wonderful to walk around. HOW DARE YOU DESTROY A TREE!!! Trees are irriplaceable. They make our air cleaner and our environment gorgeous. This is disgusting! I cannot believe I am associated with a university that would do such a horrible, phallic act!!!
7/17/2008 9:09:47 AM

"irriplaceable?" Yikes. A mind is also a terrible thing to waste. With spelling errors like that, it seems the English Department's biggest problem is not trees being cut down. "Phallic act?" Must be a Women's Studies major.

527. When There's Nothing Left To Sustain, Why Talk About Sustainability?
A military officer boasts of destroying a village in order to save it; a bomb is labeled a "peacemaker;" and institutional racism is labeled "diversity." So we shouldn't be surprised to see the cutting down of trees labeled "beautification." But it doesn't change the truth. Save the trees and cut down the lies.
John Streamas, Comparative Ethnic Studies
7/14/2008 3:56:01 PM

Ah, yes. War, racism, cutting down trees...It's all the same to ExStreamas. What a maroon.

579. Save the Avery Grove Trees and the Murrow Yard Trees too
This is ridiculous. Cutting down a tree here and there that is diseased or otherwise problematic is one thing, but this sort of clear cutting is absurd and, I would add, anti-environmental.
Christopher Lupke, Associate Professor, Foreign Languages and Cultures
7/13/2008 9:40:16 PM

I'm suprised Lu Laoshi didn't implicate the "Forbes Gang" for the "clear cutting."

585. Cougar pride?
Where is the pride in our heritage when we propose to cut down so many trees that in addition to their important shading function and great beauty are a rich part of WSU's history? And where is the imagination of our planners that they cannot find a way to keep the trees while making useful improvements?
T.V. Reed, Professor of English, Avery Hall
7/13/2008 3:24:07 PM

And where is the UFCW and their big-shot Seattle lawyers?

Prayer of the Day

Mile Kepka/San Francisco Chronicle, AP Photos

Michael Hanly figured crews were only trimming the trees when he saw them carrying tools to the old spruce and pine outside his office at Washington State University's Avery Hall last week.

But they kept cutting, and the trees eventually were gone.

Hanly did some digging and learned that more trees are on the chopping block around Avery, Bryan and Murrow halls during the third phase of the Library Road project, slated for completion in Sept. 2009.

"If they had said from the beginning that these trees were going to come down with this project, you can bet there would have been a protest," said Hanly, an English professor.

Hanly claims the university did not adequately make its plans known to the public, and he is trying to generate support from others concerned about the trees' removal. He's gathered some English department staff to protest and hopes to involve other departments if a compromise can't be reached with WSU's Capital Planning and Development Office.

- "Tree removal surprises some faculty and staff; 80 trees being cut down as part of university's Library Road project," Moscow-Pullman Daily News, July 11, 2008

Oh Lord, if a bunch of middle-aged WSU English professors are going to protest trees being cut down on the WSU campus, please do not let it be a nude "sit-in" as we have seen down in Berkeley. Amen.



UPDATE: Perhaps former Whitman County Democratic State Committeeman Dave Gibney would care to apologize to Christians for commenting that the Rapture would get rid of all the "stuck up assholes." Perhaps Democratic House candidate Tyanna Kelley would like to apologize to 9th District farmers for attacking their "gaz-guzzling" trucks.

Grow up.

"Compound fracture of fact"

The reason for the numerous PARD "compound fractures of fact" and the smear campaign they are currently waging which Terry Day referred to in a letter to the editor last Friday is obvious.

PARD desperately wants to distract public attention away from the outing of their three year long lie about not receiving any financial assistance from the UFCW. They fear, rightfully so, the wrath of Pullman citizens who have been cheated out of two million dollars in sales tax revenue and tens of thousands of dollars in legal expenses as part of some futile nationwide union grudge match against Wal-Mart that has nothing to do with our town.

PARDner Chris Lupke, and PARD ally Matthew Root (remember, Root threatened to call the cops on Palousitics constributor Ray Lindquist for holding up a "Honk for Wal-Mart" sign downtown back in January 2006,) have been engaged in a systematic campaign of outrageous lies and distortions against Scotty ("The Seattle Transplant,") myself, and by inference, all who support Wal-Mart coming to Pullman in the printed pages of the Daily News and on Dnews.com.

For example, Lupke wrote in a unhinged rant published in the July 5-6 edition of the Daily News that, "Following it [this blog post made by me on June 29] are some comments, including this: 'This pig needs to be removed from the trough.'" That bordered on libel, as the clear implication was that I had made that statement. On Dnews.com, the online comments about this letter actually turned libelous, as I was accused by both Lupke and Root of having made it.

That is a complete and utter lie. If you look at the comments for this post, you can see it was Paul Zimmerman that wrote about the "pig," not me. What I said was this:

There was a story in the Daily News not too long ago stating that the average salary of professors at WSU was $92,000 a year.

Now, one can debate that number in terms of pay at other universities or whether the professors deserve such pay or not all day long.

What is not debatable, however, is the adolescent hippie fantasy that Lupke engages in that somehow the professors of PARD with their much-higher-than-average salaries (and education) represent the "working class" of Pullman. It's unseemly and it's silly.

My wife is a professor in the College of Liberal Arts. I have never impugned the pay of professors or the quality of professors in the College of Liberal Arts in general, only arrogant jerks in any college who suppress academic freedom and try to promote their own leftist agenda on the taxpayer's time or by pretending to be "experts" in things such as traffic, urban planning and economics.

I don't think Paul was making a broad statement aboout professors either, as he has been an instructor at WSU. He was just singling out Lupke. And I was merely rebutting Lupke's absurd assertion on Dnews.com that somehow only the "more wealthy people" in Pullman support Wal-Mart. I did this by using data available to those who pay his salary, the taxpayers of Washington,to show that members of prominent PARD households all make well above the average family income in Pullman. If Lupke doesn't like his pay being a matter of public record, he should move to a job in the private sector.

If any further letters or comments claiming that I said anything about "pigs in the trough" show up again anywhere, there will be legal consequences for all involved.

But false accusations and namecalling are nothing new to the tag team of Lupke and Root, both active members of the Whitman County Democrats. A few months back, after falsely accusing me of being the Dnews.com commenter "TJ Kong," Lupke said I was "homophobic" and "fascinated with Nazis." Root called "TJ Kong" a "suicide bomber."

From last Friday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Mark Twain spoke of lies and damned lies and labeled the aphorism that "Truth is mighty and will prevail" as "the most majestic compound fracture of fact which any of woman born has yet achieved ... a truth is not hard to kill, and ... a lie well told is immortal."

I take it this must be the bible of PARDites, who continue to spread lies about Pullman city officials regarding Wal-Mart's proposed Pullman super center. PARDites will take umbrage at this truth. They are unrestrained in misrepresenting the city's handling of the Wal-Mart application, but accuse those who criticize them of intimidation.

The only smear campaign in Pullman over Wal-Mart is being conducted by the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development or its supporters. They wage it against city officials who acted morally and legally and whose handling of the issues have repeatedly been upheld in the court of law. And that especially includes providing all citizens ample opportunity through public hearings to voice their concerns and opinions. Allegations to the contrary constitute a compound fracture of fact.

Terence L. Day, Pullman

Sour Grapes from the Wealthy Residents of Pullman

Sore loser Chris Lupke of PARD wrote the following comment on Dnews.com about Susan Fagan's letter yesterday:

Susan,

Speaking as a Republican party official, you probably know you don't speak for the majority of Pullman residents just the more wealthy ones.

I hope Chris includes himself and other PARD members in that group of "more wealthy Pullman residents." A search of the 2007 Washington State University List of Employees, Job Title and Salary database reveals the following yearly salaries:

Alex Hammond: $61,512.84
Chris Lupke: $62,872.65
Nella Van Dyke: $63,868.32
TV Reed: $89,268.80
Howard Hosick: $95,878.80
Greg Hooks: $99,576.00
James "Uncle Buck" Krueger: $217,333.80 (who said studying deer testicles would never pay off?)

Average Family Income in Pullman: $40,709

Average Family Income of a Wal-Mart Shopper: $35,000

It seems the people fighting Wal-Mart in Pullman are the ones wealthy enough not to have to shop there. Not surprising really. Americans who self-identify as liberals have an average annual income of $71,000 – the highest-grossing political category in America. So much for Republicans being the "party of the rich man."

Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmart

Consensus on Global Warming at WSU?

Not if you saw the June 10 edition of WSU Today online. The original headline of a photo story by Shelly Hanks and Robert Frank on Tuesday's Pullman snowstorm read "Global Warming? R-i-g-h-t." You can view the Google cache of that version here.

After the story was linked to Tom Nelson's blog (a well-known global warming skeptic site,) and a link to Tom Nelson's blog was surreptiously embedded into the WSU Today headline, the headline was changed to read "Global warming? Not today." See for yourself here.

As April commented on the Tom Nelson blog:

Recheck the headline at the WSU site. It's been politically corrected. I'm not surprised, just sickened. The writer probably has to go through retraining so as to embrace the "empirical evidence" that the morally corrupt leftists at WSU have to offer. We wouldn't want any dissent, now would we?

"Paying a 'hidden cost'; Pullman residents lead effort to charge 20 cents per plastic bag"

Chuck "Mr. Civil Discourse" Pezeshki stated in a recent comment on Dnews.com that Pullman was the most "anti-intellectual" town he had ever seen.

Is Pullman sui generis? Or is the antipathy he observes the result of the meddling efforts by Chuck and his liberal academic chums to introduce envirofascist Nanny Statism into Pullman, such as a tax on plastic bags modeled after what Mayor Greg "Hugo Chavez" Nickels has attempted in Seattle?

I'll have much more on this later as I contemplate mounting a counter-effort to shoot this absurd proposal down.

From Friday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Liz Siler counted 22 discarded plastic shopping bags during a recent drive through College Hill in Pullman.

Some bags were caught in trees, while others were lying on lawns or blowing in the street.

"None of those bags were obtained with the idea that it was going to end up on the side of the road, but that's where they end up," Siler said.

Siler is among a group of Pullman residents who want to cut back on the use and distribution of plastic bags. Nearly 80 community members have endorsed a proposal that stores be required to charge 20 cents for each plastic bag dispensed inside city limits.

Plastic bags used for unpackaged items, such as produce, would be exempt from the fee.

The group recently submitted the proposal to the Pullman City Council for consideration, with the goal of having an ordinance go into effect Jan. 1.

Siler said in place of plastic bags, shoppers could get into the habit of keeping reusable bags tucked in their car.

"We're not trying to make things harder for people," she said. "We're trying to make things easier."

The proposal shouldn't be viewed as elitist, said Pullman resident Chuck Pezeshki. It will encourage change and show that residents respect and care for their community.

Though the commonly used bags are compact and currently free, Pezeshki said "there's a hidden cost for society" because many recycling facilities - such as WSU Recycling and Pullman Disposal Inc. - no longer accept the bags.

"If we can't recycle, we've got to reduce and reuse," he said, adding that lightweight bags can travel quickly through the wind or waterways.

The bags are made from petroleum and do not biodegrade, Pezeshki said. In fact, the plastic bags "photodegrade" in the presence of light, meaning they break into tiny pieces and can be eaten by animals. The bags also pose risks to animals that can become entangled in them.

"It's basically spreading petroleum all over the landscape," he said. "When you use a plastic bag, it's like an oil slick all over the land."

Siler said the idea to limit plastic bag use isn't new. She points to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' recent proposal to charge a "green tax" on disposable shopping bags, and added that San Francisco and communities throughout Alaska have banned the bags entirely. Ireland and China recently took similar action.

The Pullman group points to statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency to justify its cause - 4,630 tons of plastic bags, wraps and sacks were generated in the United States in 2006, of which only 8 percent were reused. The EPA also reports that a family of four uses about 1,500 bags per year.

Siler said the group has met some opposition from a few community members who are concerned they would have no way to pick up their pet waste or line garbage cans without plastic bags.

"No one's saying you can't have plastic bags," Siler said. "You're just going to have to pay for it."

Trev McCuaig, manager of Dissmore's IGA in Pullman, said the store is making strides to reduce plastic waste. Customers who want plastic bags get them, but there are other options. Inexpensive cloth bags are sold at the register, and many customers are eager to pick one up.

"Since we brought those in ... I think we've sold 700 to 800," he said. "I think there are a lot more people that are conscientious."

The store also uses recycled bags when they're offered by the supplier, and all plastic waste generated at the store is baled and sent to a recycling company in Spokane. McCuaig said the store also plans to set up a plastic bag recycling bin.

"There are things that we do at store-level to try to help out," he said.

Siler said the profits from bag fees could go to the Pullman Food Bank, which relies on the bags to package foods for area families. She suggests the money could fund an alternative method for the food bank to distribute food, or go to community beautification efforts.

City Supervisor John Sherman said the city frequently gets proposals and suggestions for change. They are forwarded to the City Council which ultimately decides whether the issue is discussed further.

Sherman said Councilman Bill Paul recently expressed interest in discussing the plastic bag fee proposal publicly, and the topic is scheduled for the council's Aug. 26 meeting. The delay is intended to allow interested residents who may be out of town for the summer to participate in the conversation.

This Is Going To Be A Shame

Included among WSU Provost Robert Bates' proposal to trim back "nonessential" courses by 20% yesterday, according to the Lewiston Tribune, was a recommendation to combine the Departments of American Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies and Women's Studies into a single unit.

Apparently, when President Elson Floyd say WSU "cannot be all things to all people," he is referring to certain WSU faculty members being bullies, racists, and left-wing agitators on the taxpayer's dime.

Quote of the Day, Part Two

[Whitman County Commissioner Jerry] Finch pointed out a lot of rancor was directed at environmental groups because of that [giant Palouse earthworm] lawsuit. He said much of the disconnect between farmers and environmentalists has been brought on by “outsiders” at the universities who tell residents of the Palouse how to best manage their land.

- "One percent left: Grad students seek to save Palouse prairie remnants," Whitman County Gazette, May 1, 2008

Amen, Jerry!!!

"Lesson was counterproductive"

Another great letter in today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News from Terry Day:

WSU architecture Professor Ayad Rahmani makes some valuable observations about Pullman's Bishop Boulevard (Opinion, April 18); observations all the more important because we're about to see similar "architorture" practiced along the Pullman-Moscow corridor.

But with all due respect, I'm going to file his methods under "politorture."

Conjuring a protest unfortunately elicits media coverage, and there may even be some value in raising public awareness about these planning and zoning issues; but Rahmani's methods countervail his stated purpose of teaching architecture students a civics lesson.

Best he leave civics to someone better qualified to teach it.

The lesson he taught is counterproductive of his own aims, which is to influence Pullman planning and zoning in a direction that he believes will produce a people-friendlier built environment.

Better he teach his students to attend meetings of relevant city boards, and city council meetings, and perhaps develop an educational report on architorture instead of encouraging students to organize an in-your-face protest that likely will push the community further from the goals he espouses in his profession.

Terence L. Day, Pullman

"Proud of Bishop Boulevard"

For those of you without a subscription to the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, below is my letter to the editor that ran on Monday.

In addition to making the obvious comparison between Professor Ayad Rahmani's elitism and that displayed by Barack Obama in his "bitter Americans" statement, I wanted to make a deeper, more subtle point.

Many of Rahmani's cheerleaders, including Chuck Pezeshki and Chris Lupke, are proponents of locally-owned businesses versus national chains. Yet, there are no chain stores on Bishop other than Safeway (yet.) There are only locally-owned businesses (Fireside Grille, Village Centre Cinemas, Corporate Pointe, Crimson and Gray, Zeppoz, Barnacle Bill's, et. al.) and locally-owned and -operated franchises (Radio Shack, Absolute Fitness, Jiffy Lube, Holiday Inn Express, et. al.)

Do we as a community really want to impose onerous and expensive architectural requirements on the types of businesses we supposedly want to encourage just to please the aesthetic sensibilities of a few professors? That will make our local businesses even less competitive with national chains. I'm quite proud of all the progress on Bishop Blvd. over the last 10 years. The sidewalks will come later when the city has more money and the Bishop build-out is complete.

For example, up in Hayden, the city negotiated with Wal-Mart to have the facade of the store tan and brown with rock veneer "to blend with the rustic flavor Hayden Lake is trying to develop as part of a revitalization project." That's chump change to Wal-Mart; merely the cost of doing business. They are dropping $600,000 to put in stop lights down in Clarkston. But that's a very big deal to a small business.

From Monday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Prior to Professor Ayad Rahmani's "architorture" faux-protest a few weeks back, I had heard only pride expressed about the buildings on Bishop Boulevard from Pullman residents, civic leaders and elected officials. Many have rightfully praised native son Duane Brelsford Jr.'s Corporate Pointe, Fireside Grille, and Village Centre Cinemas, as well as the new Pullman Regional Hospital.

Now, much as presidential candidate Barack Obama has been doing for the past week, Rahmani, who called Bishop Boulevard "counter-human," has tried to perform damage control (Opinion, April 18.)

Unfortunately for Rahmani, his Viewpoint column in the Oct. 26 issue of WSU Today completely undermined his efforts.

Sure, Rahmani is concerned about the "built environment," but only because a "worldly faculty member wants to be proud of his or her choice of place, not making apologies to those who visit" and "high-class faculty will refuse to live in scattered and inconsequential buildings."

His call for the public and the private sectors to work together also rings hollow. In his column, Rahmani claimed only the university can "save" Pullman. Pullman's housing represents the "worst of the effects of a market economy." Developers persist in building homes with "materials and planning that are highly wasteful and unsustainable." The city is "too bogged down in trying to increase tax revenues to worry about the role of architecture in improving matters." Rahmani advocated a Washington State University land grab on Grand Avenue, which "shows little beyond gas stations and neglected farm buildings," under the guise of "student housing."

Rahmani stated, "This need not be a divisive issue." Unfortunately, we nonworldly, low-class, nonfaculty types get bitter. We cling to offensive "mcmansions" with garages or inconsequential cookie-cutter homes or antipathy to people who insult and disparage our town and the people who live in it as a way to explain our frustrations.

Tom Forbes, Pullman

Quote of the Day - Godwin's Law Edition

Sadly, in the epilogue the author develops a tortured analogy comparing the logging of these forests with the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. Apparently, he actually believes that the people working for the Forest Service and in the timber industry hate the woods and the trees just as the Nazis hated Jews.

- Phil Druker, book review of Chuck "Mr. Civil Discourse" Pezeshki's book, Wild to the Last.

Wow, and I'm the one accused of having a "prurient fascination with Nazis." I guess we can conclude Chuck is not acting as an advisor to any logging corporations.

This was pointed out by a commenter on Dnews.com Some good stuff coming out of that thread about Ayad Rahmani's column last Friday. More later.

Quote of the Day

When you match my success in corporate America, as an advisor all the way to the top of some very large corporations, then we'll talk.

You've never given any evidence that you're anything other than a dead-end small-town loser that's even afraid to stand out in a rather small community.

That's the truth. Too bad for you-- as well as the rest of your pathetic cohort.

- Chuck "Mr. Civil Discourse" Pezeshki, online comment at Dnews.com, April 19, 2008.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Chuck is demonstrating how a six-figure salary tenured professor engages in the third-grade schoolyard game known as a "pissing contest." (One wonders what Chuck "advises" these corporations on.)

He's also, indirectly, acknowledging that he has no further aspirations for elected office.

BREAKING NEWS: WSU School of "Architorture" Not Done Insulting Pullman

Palousitics has just learned of plans by the WSU School of Architecture and Construction Management to stage another PR event insulting Pullman. Professor Rahmani's demonstration was just the tip of the iceberg apparently.

In addition, I have learned of leftist political indoctinration occurring within the school. "Tempest in a teapot?" Hardly.

MANY more details later.

"Bishop Boulevard growth fine as it is"

There was a great letter in the April 3 edition of the Daily News from Larry Hodge, a former member of the Latah Economic Development Council:

Friday's headline said 'Students protest city's 'architorture' " (Page 1A, March 28).

Students from professor Ayad Rahmani's WSU architecture class were protesting development of Bishop Boulevard.

Reading the article, one would believe that in the past, downtowns such as Pullman and Moscow were developed out of a very well-planned sense of cohesion, with only approved architecture being allowed. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing planned was the road system with lots and blocks laid out in a rectangular system where topography allowed. The buildings were constructed by developers using their own designs, building one here and one there, infilling until most of the lots were taken.

Bishop Boulevard is being developed just as it should be. One model for urban development does not fit all situations. Just like we need large houses, small houses, and houses with different architecture we need more than a downtown offers. Downtowns are wonderful and none of us wants to give up on ours, but other types of development in different areas should not be viewed with such disdain. The people of Pullman should be proud of buildings like the Pullman Regional Hospital, Brelsford's University Pointe office complex, and Zeppoz. They all add a unique perspective to an environment that was never meant to be downtown.

There are many different views of what is appropriate building design and lot layout and there is always room for improvement, but organizing a design review board as professor Rahmani suggests is not the answer. Having someone else tell me what color I should paint my house is not what America is about and I hope it never will be.

Larry J. Hodge, Moscow

Say What?

But how one uses their First Amendment rights is also a bellwether of where they want that society to go. And it matters even more in a small university community, where we all live together and, hopefully, are all growing together. There’s never going to be perfect harmony here — nor anywhere. But to what end, all of this behavior?

- Chuck "Mr. Civil Discourse" Pezeshki, "Time for Community Building at WSU,", Moscow-Pullman Daily News, November 21, 2006

But to pick an issue that one might care about and do something legal and political once in a semester? These are young adults we're educating. We'd like them to become active citizens someday. Anything we can do to engage them and stop the inherent sleepwalking through the curriculum that too many of our students already do is a good thing.

- Chuck "Mr. Civil Discourse" Pezeshki, "'Architorture' protest brings on tempest in a teapot," Moscow-Pullman Daily News, April 12, 2008

I guess Chuck's idea of where he wants the society in "our small university community" to go depends on whether it's the College Republicans protesting or one of his "hip," fellow elitist leftist professors.

By the way, Chuck, you can certainly do better than label anyone opposing Rahmani's PR stunt as mouthbreathing members of the local John Birch Society. Pullman residents were offended by Rahmani's overweening arrogance and snobbery, all funded on the taxpayer's dime.

"Protest only served prof's cause"

It's official: Ayad Rahmani's "architorture" protest was a big flop. The only thing he succeeded in doing was igniting a debate on teaching methods, not community planning. Hopefully, we've seen the first and last of these arrogant spectacles.

This is Steve McClure's op-ed on behalf of the entire editorial staff that appeared in yesterday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Washington State University professor Ayad Rahmani's faux-protest along Bishop Boulevard played into all the less-desirable stereotypes of a town-gown controversy.

If that was his goal, he succeeded.

Anything beyond that, however, and his gathering students to protest the design of buildings and sidewalks in the developing area of southern Pullman was little more than a publicity stunt.

He argues students didn't have to participate in the March 27 protest, which took place during the regularly scheduled class period. Those who wanted to write a paper arguing their position could receive the same credit.

We find that a bit hollow since most students will choose the path of least resistance - in this case, joining a hundred classmates for a cup of coffee and a picket.

There are hundreds of ways for students at WSU to become engaged in their community. Dropping by a parking lot for a protest two months before graduation hardly ranks near the top of the list.

Those 100 students could have spent that same class hour working with practicing architects to discover how to incorporate the desired aesthetics into an architectural rendering that works for a paying client.

If Rahmani wanted to give his students a strong life lesson, he should send them to planning commission meetings for a sense of how architects and developers work through the process. That also might give those students an idea of the challenges people confront when it comes time to develop property.

A two-mile stretch of road doesn't suddenly convert into a vibrant business district with a wave of a wand - it takes money and usually happens over a period of years.

In other words, teach these students what it will be like when they're pitching their plans to the people who will be financing the construction of their creative vision.

"WSU investigating 'architorture' protest; Demonstration organized by architecture prof causes concern among administrators, community members"

Rush has got "Operation Chaos." What should we call this?

Last week, I urged Palousitics readers to e-mail WSU president Elson Floyd about architecture professor Ayad Rahmani's "architorture" protest on Bishop Blvd. Apparently, we got results!!

That makes two victories this week, along with Ed Weber's proposal for more intellectual diversity at WSU. Let's keep up the pressure and take our campus and our town back from the academic extremists!!

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Washington State University administrators are investigating a professor's conduct following a protest in Pullman last week.

Ken Vreeland, special assistant to the provost and executive vice president, said his office has received several e-mails from community members concerned about architecture professor Ayad Rahmani's role in a March 27 protest with more than 100 of his students on Bishop Boulevard.

"We are aware of the concerns and are reviewing them," Vreeland said.

Rahmani encouraged students in his sophomore-level architecture class to protest the lack of continuity, planning and design along the boulevard. He said the protest was relevant to the course work, which studies the built environment and includes buildings, infrastructure, sustainability and design elements and how they create a community.

Students carried signs that read "Stop Architorture in Pullman" and "The Show Starts on the Sidewalk" in the protest, which took place during a regularly scheduled class period. Participation in the protest was optional for the 200 students enrolled in the class. Credit was given to students who protested, as well as those who didn't as long as they justified their position in writing.

Rahmani said the protest was intended to pinpoint city planning issues "respectfully, not controversially."

"I made it clear to the students that this is a democratic option. This is not something that they have to do," he said. "I told them that, but I did say, 'I would like you to do it, to show the principles of the class.' I thought I really needed to do something to show the students what I'm talking about."

Vreeland said many WSU classes expect students to participate in community service or interdisciplinary learning projects.

"We encourage that ... but we expect that they're inclusive of different views and use sound education practices," he said

Vreeland said he is in the information-gathering stage of the investigation, collecting facts about the protest and the course work itself. Rahmani eventually will be interviewed, though no reprimand is expected at this time.

"It would be premature to say we're taking any action against the instructor," Vreeland said. "Right now, we're going to take a look at what we can learn from this."

Rahmani said he's not aware of any concern that has surfaced in the community.

"I think I did everything according to the rules," he said. "I may have done something new, but as a teaching method I think it was significant. It got students to talk and ask questions that weren't there before."

In Rahmani's opinion, the protest was a success if the community still is talking about it one week later.

"Obviously, that's why I did it," he said. "I wanted the students to perk up ... but also the community and the developers to know that people do care and it's important to do something about it."

The only thing that it is important to "do something about" is you Professor Rahmani. Hopefully after this, no other WSU professors will be tempted to take their liberal fascist agenda to the streets of Pullman at taxpayer expense.

A Real Architect Responds

A self-described former Pullman resident, WSU grad and architect has left a great post on Dnews.com regarding the "architorture" protest last Thursday:

As a former resident of Pullman, a graduate of the School of Architecture, and now a practicing architect, I’m glad to see Pullman growing, and slightly ashamed of this.

If the architecture students want to dedicate their lives protesting each thing in the public realm they find slightly abhorrent, they’re in for a long, frustrating, and largely pointless life. Don’t they know what it means to be “tolerant” of “diversity”? Or do they expect that everything around them should be built to their own pleasing? Their actions are somewhat dismissible; they have no clue what factors actually determine who builds what and why.

My real concern is with the professor and his ilk, for encouraging and promoting this sort of behavior. It’s easy to exist in the confines of a university, and think that your own architectural theories must trump the realities of your client, but it’s an unrealistic and unhealthy expectation to place on the shoulders of students looking for a career. Furthermore, the notion that more and more zoning and design review results in better architecture is fallacious. I wonder; has he worked with and through a building permit process recently?

With professors such as this, and activities of this sort passing as credit, is it any wonder that architecture is as irrelevant and thoughtless as it is today?

"Intellectual diversity enlivens WSU debate"

Now here is a professor we can be proud of. Ed Weber, WSU political science professor and Director of the Thomas S. Foley Public Policy Institute, answered critics in in a guest op-ed in today's Spokesman-Review. He completely gets the idea of intellectual diversity and the tyranny of liberal fascism on campus. I hope his proposal for balanced speakers comes to fruition, and if it does, Danny Schanze, Alex Williams, Chris Del Beccaro, and the other WSU College Republicans will be entitled to a great deal of the credit. Thanks guys, for your courage. The "hegemony of the left-leaning liberal viewpoint" does give everyone who stands against them grief, as Weber states and I know firsthand. But we CAN make a difference by calling them out and not taking it any more, from Wal-Mart to free speech.

On March 26, noted conservative scholar Dinesh D'Souza presented a lecture titled "Racism is not the Problem" at Washington State University's main campus in Pullman. The event was co-sponsored by WSU's Thomas S. Foley Public Policy Institute, along with the Associated Students of WSU, WSU's Residential Housing Authority, and the WSU chapter of the College Republicans.

The question-and-answer period immediately following the talk and ensuing commentary in WSU's campus newspaper, The Evergreen, made clear that many took offense at D'Souza's message, going so far as to accuse D'Souza and, by extension, the Foley Institute of further polarizing the campus on the issue of race, and accusing the Foley of being irresponsible. The Institute has even been challenged to provide immediate "equal time" and to do so quickly lest its mission of, and reputation for, non-partisanship be tarnished.

Allow me to throw a few facts on the table in regard to these requests for turnabout as fair play and the goal of a balanced dialogue, and then draw out the implications.

The Foley was established in 1995 and I have led it since 2001. During that time left-leaning, liberal speakers have outnumbered conservatives in a ratio of four or five to one.

How can this be if we make our decisions based on expertise? In part it is a function of the fact, established by several pieces of social science research, that roughly 90 percent of all social scientists and humanities scholars are either card-carrying Democrats or those with left-of-center values and preferences. An equally illuminating point is that WSU, like so many college campuses today, and especially in the College of Liberal Arts, is clearly more receptive to speakers who espouse liberal Democratic politics and policy views.

While no one has ever stopped me from inviting a conservative speaker to WSU, the hegemony of the left-leaning liberal viewpoint is such that the only grief I've ever received from my advisory board or others is when I have invited John Ashcroft, John Sununu, Mr. D'Souza, and a handful of others to campus under the Foley banner. I have never been interrogated or otherwise questioned about any liberal speaker so invited.

The thing is, I've never cared what side of the intellectual diversity divide someone stands on -- my job is to bring in excellent speakers who will make us think, and perhaps rethink our established positions. But there is a cost, emotional and otherwise, to fighting the inevitable "geez, why did you invite that fascist Ashcroft to WSU?" or "are you sure the Foley should be associated with such an outlandish (i.e., conservative) view?"

As a result, I have shied away from inviting too many of "the wrong kind" of intellectual. For that lack of courage I must apologize to all of the conservatives on campus -- students, staff and professors -- and in the surrounding communities of Washington State. I should have fought harder to bring more conservative voices to campus.

So here is my first proposal to meet the request for fair play and a balancing of the intellectual scales so that true intellectual diversity comes to WSU. Over the next 10 years, the Foley Institute should dedicate roughly 70 to 80 percent of its considerable programming resources to respected and strongly conservative speakers.

On a second and more concrete level, I propose that WSU immediately commission a working group comprised of university leaders, students and staff to establish an annual high profile, world-class lecture series in Pullman devoted to the theme of intellectual diversity. The series should be run by the Foley Institute and will consist of two lectures each year with one devoted to the liberal side and the other to a conservative position. WSU will need roughly $130,000 per year to support the series. The Foley can contribute $30,000, WSU students (ASWSU) can add $30,000, and WSU's administration can contribute the remaining funds for the first five years. Everyone together will then accept the challenge of raising the roughly $3 million needed to endow the series.

As director of the Foley Institute, and as a scientist and teacher who embraces the marketplace of ideas, I am saddened by those who choose to characterize D'Souza's ideas as polarizing and some who challenge the very right of D'Souza to share his conservative views on race with WSU. One thing I am certain of is this: the Foley Institute did WSU and the state of Washington a great service by enlivening the debate over race precisely because it directly challenged and broke the monopolistic hold at WSU of a singular, politically correct view on the race issue.

This should be our mission in higher education. Why? Because great universities thrive and embrace rather than shrink from the marketplace of ideas. Nor do they allow "offended" parties to dictate the substance of dialogue. My challenge to WSU is simply this: which one will we choose to be?

Quote of the Year

There is no really good area outside of what’s on campus.

- WSU architecture professor Ayad Rahmani passsing judgment on Pullman, "Architecture students protest on Bishop Boulevard," The Daily Evergreen, April 1, 2008

Rahmani hopes his imperious and insulting comments will "generate some intelligent discussion."

Runner-Up:

Each building is completely independent from one another